Walked my shepherd pup on a local bike trail yesterday and found fresh coyote spoor on my back track a few minutes after we had passed and on our way home..
The yote didn't show himself but sure wanted us to know he
was around..
When they quit the bounty on them their numbers went way up as did their nuisance factor...the liberal animal rights DNR around here would protect them over all domestic animals and landowners..
S3
imo
I doubt very much there is any coy-wolf inbreeding going on. What's more likely is the much larger north-eastern coyote has expanded it's territory, or rather, reclaimed much of it, moving more westerly and south. They remain in a loose pack-like society during their first year or so from birth, which gives the appearance of them being in a pack, when really it's just a den of adolencent pups. If you have a few dens around it seems like there is a large pack.
I don't doubt your suspicions about the DNR. I don't work from the DNR but I get some very strange calls from time to time. A particularily humorous one was a lady who was convince she saw a pteradactyl and was livid with me when I started to ask her questions regarding it. After about 5 minutes I was able to determine she saw a Turkey Vulture. It took me several emails to convince her of the same.
Back in the late 70s/early 80s, the western MD "park rangers", as we called them then were cool as can be.
They'd come out at any hour of day or night and pick up a sick/dead/suspicious critter for you.
They'd do all night stakeouts for poachers and routinely get shot at and take it in stride.
In short, they were "manly men" and most of them were hunters themselves.
Then, the green government dweebs arrived.
Now they will threaten to arrest if you so much as stop and pick up an injured chipmunk.
After dealing with them for the last 20-some years, I'd put -nothing- past them so far as "rewilding" and "restoring" animals which the pioneers sensibly got rid of centuries ago.
The area in which these coyotes were trapped is about a mile or so from where I live. About a month ago the local police chief spotted his first one. Of course civilians have been spotting them for some time. Enter the trapper. Trap and destroy program.
On another news station the trapper was quoted as saying several were about 80 lbs...huge if just coyote with no mixing. Heavy enough woods and abandoned or fallow farms to give them a fairly broad range and lots of juicy yuppie puppies.
I'm just waiting for the whiney 'Can't we just sterilize them crowd' to start acting up.